Al Sharpton: MSNBC’s Next Failure

MSNBC hit a new low last week when it debuted a talk show featuring Al Sharpton as host. Subsequently, the network changed its advertising slogan to, “We’ve fallen and we can’t get up.”

Sharpton? Really? Is that the best that liberal “journalism” can offer? If you come from New York, then you have not-so-fond memories of Al Sharpton, publicity hound extraordinaire, standing in the subway tracks and leading a dopey demonstration, Al Sharpton convulsing the city with his Tawana Brawley infatuation, and Al Sharpton parading with a medallion around his neck only smaller than the Fortuna wall clock that Flavor Flav wears.

In fairness to MSNBC, anybody trying to do liberal talk radio is playing a losing hand. Michael Medved said it best many years ago when he was talking about Michael Jackson, the preeminent voice of liberal talk radio whose erudite, entertaining, and eminently fair show aired weekday mornings on KABC in Los Angeles. As Medved said, if Michael Jackson (the talk show host, not the singer) couldn’t draw an audience, no one in liberal talk radio can.

And that’s the problem. Conservatives pretty much sing from the same hymnal. There are a handful of issues that most conservatives agree on–limited government, opposition to unions, controlling the border, that sort of thing.